Lost Mines of Phandelver is the official starter set for Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition and is often recommended to new DMs. It’s a great kit for beginners as it has everything you need to get started and hovers around $15 on Amazon. If you’re brand new to D&D and want to jump into DMing for a group this is the way to go.

Encounter Adjustment – Don’t have the recommended 4 players for the starter set? Use this tool to adjust combat encounters for the amount of players you have!

Building Upon LMoP

How I start new players in LMoP – Tips to make the start of the campaign stronger, give your players a connection to Gundren, and avoid having your level 1 PCs get one shot in the first encounter. Read the comments too!

Transitioning into Out of the Abyss– Incredible ideas on how to make the adventure more cohesive, and ideas on how to tie it into the Out of the Abyss adventure. Even if you don’t plan to run OotA this is a must read to make LMoP a better adventure.

Thundertree Part 1 & Part 2 – Thundertree is the weakest area in the starter set. Part 1 describes the idea’s on how to liven up how Reidoth, Venomfang, and the Cult of the Dragon interact in this area. Part 2 is how it actually went down in game.

Venomfang – Amazing post on how to run Venomfang in the town of Thundertree and turn it into a very memorable encounter.

Cursed Goblin Items – Makes the items you find at the defiled shrine of Tymora in Cragmaw Keep magic with curses. The dagger is pretty wordy and the curse can be used to player’s advantage pretty easy so you might want to change it.

Transition into Princes of the Apocalypse: One & Two – Ideas on tying LMoP into the official module Princes of the Apocalypse. Good basis for tying LMoP into other adventures as well.

Battlemaps

iTim – iTim over at rpg.net has recreated almost every map included in the book, the town of Phandalin in a few different seasons, and a couple of areas that did not come with a premade map. Doesn’t include Cragmaw Hideout.

Mike Schley – Artist of the maps included in the book. He has high resolution downloads available on his website for a reasonable price.